Tag: on murder considered as one of the fine arts

Summary: The provocative early-nineteenth-century essayist casts a blackly comic eye over the aesthetics of murder through the ages.

My Thoughts: So this book is about a group of gentlemen discussing about the aesthetics of murder. This is in satire form. But you know, all satire’s lost on me except of course Animal Farm (which is a great book BTW). Much to my disappointment, there was no detailed gore in this book.

Rating: 2/5 stars

PENGUIN LITTLE BLACK CLASSICS NO. 5
Author: Friedrich Nietzsche

Title: Aphorisms on Love and Hate

Summary: The iconoclastic German philosopher’s blazing maxims on revenge, false pity and the drawbacks of marriage.

My Thoughts: Honestly, this is a poor example of Nietzsche’s philosophising. This is too short and you can’t even comprehend some of the things that he’s trying to say. This review is only for this edition. I believe that you should not pass up reading this great work!

Rating: 4/5 stars

PENGUIN LITTLE BLACK CLASSICS NO. 6
Author: John Ruskin

Title: Traffic

Summary: The radical Victorian art critic’s excoriating defence of dignity and creativity in a world obsessed by money.

My Thoughts: Traffic is like a college minor subject you have to go through to get credits. For what it’s worth, I did enjoy and agree to some points but that’s about it. It would’ve been nice to listen to the audio as this is a lecture. It’s difficult to read it off a page.

Rating: 3/5 stars

P.S. I have reached an impasse with these little black classics. My goal was to read through all of them by the end of the year but the last few have been quite painful to read. So the best thing would probably be to just read 2-3 books per month and I think I need to dedicate a few hours just to read it. I’m starting to think that it was not a good idea to get the entire collection.